Tuesday
by Lady Callista
Summary: Oliver knew it sounded crazy, and he was the one it was happening to. He had no idea how to tell his friends he was reliving the same day over and over. He also had no clue how to stop it. Set early in S3, Olicity, Groundhog Day challenge.
1. Wednesday

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Arrow or any of its characters. DC Comics, the WB, and others have that honor. No profit is being made, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

AN: So the challenge was a "time loop" a la "Groundhog Day," preferably for a show you've never written for before. And I've considered doing Arrow for a while. My muse has returned!

Starts after 3x4 The Magician, and takes place over the week between that and the next episode. (Although if this had happened things would be a bit changed from then on.) For anyone who needs a quick refresher: Sara is dead, and the main suspect is Malcolm, who everyone has just learned is alive. However Malcolm has sworn on Thea that he didn't do it, and Oliver believes him. Thea is working to reopen Verdant, and no one knows she trained with Malcolm. Felicity is working at QC with Roy, and has just gotten back from visiting Barry in Central City. She told him that she knew about his powers, and also admited to him that she's still in love with Oliver. Laurel is learning to box and hiding from her father that Sara is dead. And John and Lyla are learning the joys of parenting baby Sara. I think that's about all you need.

* * *

Tuesday

by Lady Callista

Chapter 1: Wednesday

Oliver didn't even notice until almost noon on what should have been Wednesday that anything was wrong.

He'd woken at sunrise and gone on a ten mile run, then returned to Verdant and spent a few hours in the basement training, and then another few working on crafting arrows.

It was almost noon, and he'd just been thinking of what he wanted for lunch, when his phone rang.

"Hey Thea, what's the emergency today?" Oliver answered the call with a grin. One of the only good things about no longer being Queen Consolidated's CEO was that he had enough spare time to help Thea reopen Verdant without cutting into his nighttime activities. She had wanted to do everything herself but it was a rather complicated process, especially since she was also apartment hunting, not to mention just catching up after being out of town, and out of business, for over six months.

"You don't happen to be near Verdant, do you?" Thea's voice was filled with frustration.

Oliver managed not to chuckle as he looked up at the ceiling. "I'm fairly close, why?"

"Because I'm across town dealing with about ten miles of red tape, but the building inspector is going to be there in about fifteen minutes, and it'll take days to reschedule it, and..."

"I thought we took care of that yesterday." Oliver interrupted, not trying to hide the confusion in his voice. He was certain she had called him yesterday for the exact same reason, her words were almost identical.

"Yesterday I was working with an electrician, and you dropped by for, well, I don't actually know what cause I saw you for all of five minutes."

"Wasn't the electrician in Monday?"

"Yeah, and it's Tuesday, Ollie." Thea's voice held a mixture of amusement and tried patience. "You really need to get a job or something if you're losing track of days."

"I'm not losing track, I just..." Oliver managed a strained sounding chuckle. "I guess we've spent so much time on Verdant in the last week that I'm having dreams of it."

"Oh, I hear that, although mine are more like nightmares." Thea's laugh was genuine. "I swear I woke up in a panic a few days ago because I was convinced I had been denied a liquor license that I can't even apply for until Friday. So you can help me out?"

"Sure, I can be there by noon." Oliver replied, absently turning an arrowhead over in his hands, still convinced he had done this the day before.

"Thanks." Thea replied. "It'll take at least an hour, and I should be there by one to talk to him, so you really just need to power everything up and let him in and..."

"And then stay out of his way, I know, Thea. I've done this before." Oliver said as he hit the secondary power switch, turning off all the lights in the bunker but leaving the computers and all their various search programs on, and headed up the stairs.

"Are you still claiming you did this yesterday?"

He actually did still think that, but there was no point in worrying her. "No, but I had to have it inspected when I first opened it."

"And it was a little less, uh, damaged, I know." Thea said. "Hold on a sec."

Oliver began powering up the lights in the club as he heard his sister talking to someone else, and then she was back.

"Look, Ollie, I've gotta go. One of my main distributers is finally free and we're working out the contracts, pending the license approval. Although I'm not really worried about that, weird dreams to the contrary."

"I'm fine, Thea." He sighed, knowing she was bringing dreams up again for a reason. "I know it's crazy right now, but you're doing a good thing here, and this _will_ work out."

"Thanks, Ollie, I needed to hear that." Thea's voice was soft before it became business-like once again. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"I've got this, sis." Oliver reassured her. "Go kick ass."

"I'll give you the names I take." Thea grinned. "Thanks, see you soon."

Oliver was very tense when Thea walked in nearly an hour later, handing him a take-out bag with a grin. "I'm sure you didn't get lunch with rushing down here."

He had discounted the weird deja-vu that had come with the start of Thea's call, because the rest of it hadn't been remotely what he had _remembered_ from what he had thought was the day before. He had decided it had to have been a weird dream, and moved on.

Until the building inspector was the man Oliver had _dreamed_ about. Until he was wearing the same suit and tie, and asked the same questions.

Thea arriving with Thai food, again, was the final straw.

But Oliver was used to controling his body language and expressions. In less than a second, his public face was back in place, and he loosened his body enough to lean on the bar. "Thanks. Phat Thai?"

Thea's eyebrow raised suspiciously. "How did you know?"

"Well, it is my favorite." Oliver said with a fake grin. The problem was it was rare for her to get his favorite, she always picked them both up whatever the special of the day was. But she had brought it for him yesterday. Or in his dream of yesterday. Or whenever it was in whatever the hell was going on. But she would think he was completely nuts if he told her he was reliving an entire day.

"How's it going?" Thea asked as they settled in at the bar.

"Not bad." Oliver commented, even as his thoughts whirled. "I showed him the contracts for the plumbing repairs, and the electricians, and of course the structual reports and our plans there. It sounds like as long as all that works out, you'll be good."

"Good." Thea said as she dug into her khao soi. "So what are you up to for the rest of the day?"

"I'm not sure." Oliver replied as he unwrapped his chopsticks. _Chatting with you for about an hour until the inspector is done, then going down to the basement to finish off my arrowheads and finding Felicity there with news that one of her searches has finally located a guy we've been tracking for a few days, the city's newest gun-for-hire, well in this case shuriken for hire, apprehending him after a very long night and..._

"I'd say we should do dinner, but I've got more meetings scheduled after this, and I've been up since around 6." Thea grinned. "I think by dinner I'll be having leftover Thai in my pajamas and zoning out to some bad sitcom or other."

"Have fun." Oliver managed a smile. He felt horrible about keeping up this pretense with her, he had promised her no more lies, and, well, Arrow-related things not withstanding, he meant to stick with that. But he knew she would just laugh, or maybe call a shrink or something.

He couldn't even be positive this was happening, or that if it was it would happen again. Oliver buried all his misgivings in a corner of his mind and steeled himself to go through the day exactly as he remembered doing yesterday.

* * *

"Are you okay, Oliver?" Feicity asked at nearly midnight as he came out from changing out of his suit. It had been just the two of them and Dig tonight, and Diggle had gone straight home once they caught the ninja star guy that had dropped five bodies in the past three days. Apparently baby Sara really wasn't getting on board with the whole sleeping through the night thing, and even two people trained to function without sleep were approaching their limits.

"I'm all right." Oliver answered without looking at her as he worked on putting his suit back in its case. This was something that hadn't happened yesterday, she had been closing her station down by the time he came out and just quietly wished him good night.

"You're like a frelling Time Lord, aren't you? Where all right is code for _really not all right at all_?"

Oliver turned towards her, blinking in confusion.

"And okay, I didn't expect you to get the quote, but the show is like fifty years old Oliver, you have no excuse there." Felicity said as she rose from her chair. "You've been acting strange all night, and you made a really weird choice tonight, that, okay, worked out, but..."

"It worked out, Felicity, can't we just leave it at that?" Oliver asked with a sigh. He'd made what would have been a bad tactical decision if he hadn't known something that Felicity didn't, and had saved John a bullet graze on the thigh by making what looked to both his partners like a bad decision at the time. He couldn't regret it, but he didn't want her to push him to explain it.

"But Oliver, you and John trained me in tactics. You taught me when I needed to alert you to a shooter, or how to recognize a tail, or how to invade a building, and wow I say so many sentences I never thought I'd say outside of a gaming group. But I don't understand what you did tonight, and I want to."

"Would you believe I got lucky?" Oliver side-stepped the question still in her voice, finishing putting his suit away and closing the glass door. The truth was he had indeed, in a way, gotten lucky, because he had trusted his memories of yesterday. Of Tuesday. Of his dream. Or whatever. And he had changed their planned entry at the last minute, because if he was right he would save Dig from triggering a trap. He had been right.

Felicity studied his face for a long moment, and whatever she saw there caused her to sigh. "If it was one of your crazy skills, Oliver, or even just your gut, you can say so. I honestly just want to know what I missed."

"You didn't miss anything, Felicity, it was just a gut feeling." He said softly as he approached her. "We're not exactly unknown in the city these days, and I use tons of rooftop entrances. It just seemed too easy." And now that he thought of it, Oliver realized that was really something he should consider more often.

"Okay." She acknowledged with a small smile. "I probably won't be in tomorrow until around seven, cause I know the board meeting will run late, it always does."

"See you then."

"Oh, and Oliver, the next time you leave Phat Thai in the fridge please let me know. I got all excited about an hour ago because I was starving and found leftovers, but then I opened it and, well, you know, peanuts." Felicity said as she rose and started putting her light coat on. "I really wish we could order delivery down here."

"You do understand the term secret hideout, right?" Oliver graced her with a real smile before turning serious. "But I am sorry I didn't tell you, we never leave anything with nuts in there." He had been a bit distracted today.

"Don't worry about it, I do know your favorite Thai on sight. John's too." Felicity added the last quickly as his eyebrow raised. "And now I'm gonna go and try to get at least six hours of sleep before another full day tomorrow."

Oliver flinched at the reminder that he had no idea what he would wake up to tomorrow. Thankfully, she was looking down at the counter, scooping her tablet and phone into her bag, and he had his expression under control by the time she looked up. "Sweet dreams."

Felicity smiled softly. "You too, Oliver." She reached out and squeezed his hand before heading out.

Oliver watched her go. He had been a second away from using their joined hands to pull her in for a kiss, because he wanted to and she wouldn't remember tomorrow anyway. But the chance that she would made him put his hands in his pockets as she moved up the stairs.

He really hoped today had just been a bizarre episode of deja vu and tomorrow would be normal again.

TBC...


	2. Thursday

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Arrow or any of its characters. DC Comics, the WB, and others have that honor. No profit is being made, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

AN: Apologies for the short chapters, and also to those who were waiting for my WIP in another catagory. After abandoning me for a while my muse only perked up when reading this challenge. And my chapters normally average over 3000 words, but in this case the format required shorter ones. Plus side, that does mean they'll come out more frequently. I'm actually going to try to tell it daily. Helpful critiques and commentary are always appreciated.

* * *

Tuesday

by Lady Callista

Chapter 2: Thursday

Pre- _Gambit_ Oliver wouldn't have worried about having no memory of when he went to sleep, especially if he woke up alone in his own bed. It hadn't exactly been an infrequent occurance.

But people drugging him and serious injuries notwithstanding, it hadn't happened since he got back.

Except for today. Well, and yesterday, he realized, although he hadn't thought about it at the time. He was really hoping it had all been a dream, and he tensed as it all came flooding back.

Oliver told himself it was Thursday, or what should have been Thursday, but was maybe Wednesday. Or hopefully not Tuesday again

Oliver wandered over to Felicity's domain, flipping on the regular TV that was on the far left of all her monitors. The TV was, as usual, tuned to Starling's main news station.

He had turned it on just in time for the six am news.

For Tuesday.

The temperature was supposed to stay in the mid 50's all day, with low humidity and no chance of rain. Laurel Lance had won a significant criminal case, getting guilty verdicts on several low-lifes the Arrow had left tied up for the police last month. The stock market was up almost a hundred points. Judge Inoue had almost been killed in a drive-by down in the Glades, but it was believed to be a case of wrong place, wrong time. The judge was expected to make a full recovery. The Rockets had won their game last night. The police had opened up a tip line for information on what the press was calling the Ninja Star Killer. The bodies of two more police officers had been...

Oliver took a deep breath as he turned off the television, then cursed under his breath in a mix of Mandarin, Spanish, and Russian that would give most translators a run for their money.

It was the same news he had listened to on his headphones during his run yesterday morning, although since he hadn't listened to it the day before that he hadn't realized it was Tuesday's news.

It was Tuesday again.

His first thought was to call Felicity and Dig and fill them in, that was honestly always his first thought when he needed help with anything. He couldn't decide if they'd laugh at him or start checking for head trauma and running tox-screens.

Although honestly that last one might not be a horrible idea, a little voice in the back of his head that sounded like Felicity stated. Because there were two options here, either something was wrong with him, or something was wrong with the world.

He wasn't as good at running samples as Felicity was, but he knew the basics, and the equiptment they had would do most of the work anyway. It didn't really seem like a good idea, but at least it was doing something.

A few hours later, Oliver was again cursing under his breath in a mix of languages as he took his frustrations out on one of the practice dummies. As far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong with his blood, and he wasn't sure if that was good news or bad news.

It was good news because he really, really didn't want to deal with another mystery drug being given to people without their knowledge. But it was bad news because it meant he really was reliving the day, which was impossible but seemed the only solution. It sounded crazy, he knew that, but he couldn't think what else could be happening. Other than him actually being crazy, which he chose to discount for the moment.

It seemed insane to just repeat the day as if nothing abnormal was happening, but it also seemed insane to do anything else. He remembered thinking, before he fell asleep last night, that he had no way of knowing if this would continue to happen. And if it didn't, he couldn't afford to skip something, even if he'd gone through it multiple times, that it would be bad to have skipped if it stopped being Tuesday.

But if he wasn't already crazy, repeating the same day over and over might drive him there.

Rather than work out until Thea's call a bit before noon, Oliver had, carefully, turned on one of Felicity's back-up computers, one of the ones where he didn't have to worry about a wrong key or click ruining hours of work. He brought up one of her main search engines, hesitantly typing "day repeating itself" into the box.

Ten seconds later, when two boxes requesting additional parameters popped up, and then a third box with what looked like random symbols and letters opened itself down in the corner, he closed down the search. He opened up a basic Google search, and typed in the same thing.

The main result was a movie called Groundhog Day, which he vaguely remembered watching in high school, well, making out with a girl while pretending to watch. The second result was an article about it being a Holllywood trope, and that the term for it was _time loop_.

Googling _time loop_ wasn't really helpful either. It led him to a ridiculous article on a website called Cracked, which had a list of eight stupid ideas, which were probably supposed to be funny, for how to try to get out of a time loop. There was also a link to a top thirty list of movies and TV episodes dealing with time loops. There was a scientific article that he closed after five paragraphs because he could only understand every other word, but that seemed to say time loops were impossible.

He spent another hour beating up on one of the practice dummies.

And then he went for the ten mile run he had planned on having this morning, because he honestly didn't know what else to do.

He had just showered when Thea called to ask him to let in the building inspector.

Oliver was glad he was alone in the basement as he let out a roar of frustration.

* * *

The words that he was surprised to see her at this time of day wanted to fall from his lips as he crossed the basement towards the computers, but he really wasn't and couldn't say it. "Hey, Felicity."

"The metallurgy reports finally threw up a red flag." Felicity greeted him with a smile. "A guy wanted in both France and Germany on multiple murders with the exact same MO. The guy using Starling's finest for target practice is named Richard Chao, and I've got an address. I think it's a safehouse of sorts, or maybe a front he uses for people to contact him. I'm keeping tabs on the street cameras outside, he's not there now but we'll know when he is."

"Good job, Felicity." Oliver said as he tossed his barely touched food in the fridge, then remembered her comment last night. "Oh, and don't eat the Thai on the top shelf, it has peanuts."

"Thanks for the warning." Felicity smiled at him as she turned back to her typing. "Oh, and a backcheck of the cameras showed he's usually there for a few hours every night, so it'll probably just be best to go in then."

"I'll let Dig know." Oliver replied, wandering restlessly around the platform. He couldn't search for anything on the computers while she was here, not that he had any more ideas on what he would search for anyway, it wasn't like the few this morning had yielded good results.

If today followed the pattern of the past two, she'd work here for another hour or so, then head back to her day job. Both her and Dig would show up at six tonight, and she would bring them all sushi from a new place across the street from QC. They wouldn't eat much though, because it wasn't really that good, and then her computer would alert them that Chao was at the address...

And that explained why she had been so hungry last night, Oliver realized abruptly. Because she had taken an extended lunch hour but spent it all here, and then barely had dinner.

"We should grab lunch somewhere." Oliver said before he could reason himself out of it. They'd had lunch together often when they worked together at QC, so if tomorrow wasn't Tuesday again she wouldn't think it was odd. And he really needed to get out of his own head for a few hours.

"I really should do a few more things here."

"You really should stop working through your lunch hours." Oliver countered with a smirk, plucking her coat off her chair and holding it out for her.

"I was always the one telling you that." Felicity smiled at him, typing in a few more things before standing up even as she slid her phone into her purse. "And there is this new sushi place just across from the office I've been wanting to try, but didn't you just eat?"

"Thea brought the Thai, but I wasn't in the mood for it." Oliver responded as he helped her into her coat, then added with a straight face, "And I have it on good authority the new sushi place isn't that good."

"Oliver, it's only been open for like four days." Felicity protested even as they headed for the stairs.

"Trust me."

He said it simply, and she answered the same way. "So, the usual place? Cause I really do want sushi."

"Sounds perfect." He couldn't stop his hand from settling lightly on her lower back as they crossed the club, grateful that Thea had already left. It was getting hard to explain to her why he was always here, and it would be even harder to explain Felicity.

For the next hour he completely forgot about the seemingly impossible thing that was going on and just enjoyed Felicity's company.

TBC...


	3. Friday

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Arrow or any of its characters. DC Comics, the WB, and others have that honor. No profit is being made, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

AN: Because I was asked, yes, when Oliver googled "time loops" in the last chapter, those were basically the results I got when I did the same. It's too hard to put links up here, but the same search should yield the same results. The Cracked article really is kinda funny, when you're not the one stuck in the loop. Hope everyone is still enjoying, comments and/or critiques are always appreciated.

* * *

Tuesday

by Lady Callista

Chapter 3: Friday

Oliver Queen woke with the sunrise. That in itself wasn't unusual, it had been a matter of survival on the island, and like many things from that time it had stuck with him, even though no sunlight penatrated down into the basement. What was unusual was that he didn't immediately drop to the floor by the side of the bed and start doing push-ups, or crunches. He didn't grab his sweats and start stretching for a run.

The first thing Oliver did was grab his phone from the floor next to his bed and thumb it on. He ignored the time, he knew it was sunrise, and focused on the date. When he saw that it was Tuesday the 13th, he simply took a deep breath and let it out again, falling back against his pillows.

It had been Tuesday for four days now.

It was supposed to be Friday, just like yesterday should have been Thursday, and the day before that should have been Wednesday. His hands fisted in the blankets as he let out a groan of frustration mingled with hopelessness.

Now instead of waking up and it being Friday, or hell, at this point he would have settled for Wednesday, it was Tuesday again.

The problem, Oliver huffed in frustration as he dropped down beside the bed and began to do push-ups, was that he had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

He recalled the ludacris suggestions on some of the websites he'd found yesterday, all of which were clearly completely sci-fi oriented, and sighed. One of the only ones that had even seemed reasonable, once adapted to the real world, had been finding a major or possibly minor event that everything revolved around. He had checked the international as well as the local news late last night, on Tuesday, and planned to compare it to, well, tonight. And if it was the same last night and tonight and... and he might need a new vocabulary.

After spending the entire morning trying to work out his frustration, Oliver let out a string of impressively multilingual words before answering his phone at a bit before noon. "Hey Thea, what's the emergency today?"

* * *

Oliver had been too on-edge to take Felicity out for lunch today and pretend everything was normal, although he had stopped on his way back from an afternoon run and gotten some of her favorite Indian food, leaving it in the fridge for her to find when she was hungry later.

He finished his Thai food around five, knowing it would give him an excuse for not having the sushi later. John and Felicity might think that was odd, as Tuesdays were normally Big Belly Burger night, but he just couldn't deal with bad sushi again. It hadn't gotten any of them sick, thankfully, but he had no desire to eat it again.

He remembered having the random thought the night before, when after sushi for lunch Felicity had brought in their normal burgers for dinner, that maybe that tradition would make everything right with the world. It had been a ridiculous thought, but this whole situation was ridiculous.

He could clearly change things, he had done so multiple times and in various ways. And those changes had affected other things, like Felicity bringing in burgers since she'd already had the sushi she had woken up craving. She hadn't brought in sushi for dinner, even though she had done it the first two Tuesdays, because she had already had it.

Dig hadn't gotten grazed by a bullet last night because Oliver had changed things, and he hadn't gotten hurt in some other way, as if it was going to happen no matter what. One of the things on one of the weird lists he had found said that happened sometimes.

But neither of those changes, nor the variations in Oliver's own actions such as when he exercised or went on runs, or if he made arrowheads or not, had stopped the day from repeating.

Oliver was suited up by six, shooting arrows at tennis balls as he heard John let himself in. They acknowledged each other as John headed over to the cabinet to get his guns and clips ready for the night. "No alert yet?"

"Nope." Oliver knew it wouldn't come for about a half hour. "Although Felicity left us instructions to _not_ go in without her here if it goes off. Apparently when the police in Berlin tried to arrest him there were traps and surprises all over his safehouse."

"Sounds fun." Dig replied, adding to his mental list on what besides his guns he wanted in his arsenal for the night. Although that did make him ask, "Roy with us tonight?"

"No, he's been a bit off his game, I told him to take the night off once Felicity told me what we might be dealing with." Oliver replied, wondering if that was something he should change tomorrow. But if Roy getting himself killed was what would get him out of this time loop, Oliver didn't want to know.

"I bet he wasn't happy about that." Dig commented, looking at Oliver curiously as his friend set aside his bow and wandered over to the platform, glancing at the clock.

"Actually, he was okay with it." Oliver answered, knowing Dig was right that it was a surprising reaction, it was just one that after four days he had stopped being surprised by. "He's probably upstairs guarding Thea, either with or without her knowledge."

"That's actually a good place for him, Oliver." He replied even as he slid a pocket knife into his back pocket and another into his vest before selecting a few small grenades as well. Knowing there would be traps meant having ways to deactivate them, or at least set them off from a safe distance. "With Merlyn alive any of us could be targets for something, but at least Lyla, Felicity, and Laurel know what's going on."

Oliver sighed as he checked the clock, Felicity was almost ten minutes later than she had been the past few nights and he was starting to worry. "I know, it's why I'm glad she's spending so much time here, and that Roy is working at the club again." Oliver said absently.

"You okay, man?" Dig asked after he had worked in silence for a few minutes, watching Oliver pace the platform and constantly check the clock. "We can spar until Felicity gets here with food, or until that alert goes off, if you need to blow off some steam."

Oliver realized he had been pacing like a caged animal and forced himself to stop. She was only twelve minutes late, but he knew how much could happen in twelve minutes, and it was a change in the pattern he didn't particularly like. "I'm good, just anxious to get this guy. He's killed five cops." Oliver decided Felicity had three more minutes before he called to check on her.

"I know, and we'll get him."

It had been two and a half minutes, and Oliver was just reaching for his phone, when he heard the beep of the upstairs door and the click of her heels on the stairs. "Sorry, I know we said six but there was a car accident blocking the QC ramp. It took me forever to get out of there."

That was new, but not particularly alarming, Oliver thought as he relaxed and said it was fine.

"Hey, isn't it Tuesday?" Dig asked as he watched Felicity set a plastic bag with Japanese writing on the side table they kept empty for food.

Oliver cringed at the question, although thankfully neither of them was paying attention to him at the moment.

"Yeah, but I woke up with a craving for sushi, and a new place opened this past weekend across from the office. I've been waiting to try it." Felicity smiled brightly, glancing at her monitors to make sure everything was running smoothly before starting to unload plastic containers. "I got a variety, figured we could see what was good there."

Nothing, Oliver wanted to say, but instead commented, "I actually just finished some Thai Thea had brought for lunch."

Diggle shook his head as he grabbed one of the paper plates in the bag and started loading it with rolls at random. "Man, I don't know what's stranger, not having burgers for dinner, or you having already eaten on what should be burger day."

"I'll bring you burgers tomorrow Dig, and then all will be right with the world." Felicity grinned at him, knowing he wasn't really upset. Then she turned to Oliver as he made an odd coughing sound. "And at least try a slice or two, I got ahi especially for you."

Oliver felt his eye twitch as she put two slices of tuna ovrer rice on a plate and held it out, but managed to give her a small smile as he took it. Oliver popped a piece into his mouth without expression, chewing quickly before managing to swallow. He reminded himself that he'd eaten much worse things in the past.

He saw Felicity looking a question at him as she made up a plate for herself, and offered, "Uh, maybe don't get the ahi next time."

"Or the California rolls." Dig added a second later, causing Felicity to spin to him in concern as he coughed. "At least I think that's what that was supposed to be."

"Well, it can't all be bad, right?" Felicity said hopefully as she gamely tried one of the salmon rolls. The optimistic look on her face faded as she swallowed quickly before reaching for one of the bottles of juice she had also brought.

Dig shot her a sympathetic look, bravely trying a second roll as she passed both Oliver and himself bottles as well. He drained half of his in three gulps as he set the plate back on the table. "Apparently either you or Thea is psychic." He grinned at Oliver as he said it. "I don't suppose there's any Thai left?"

"No, uh..." Oliver kept his face blank, about to mention there was Indian in the fridge that they could split, when Felicity interrupted him.

"This is what I get for changing the routine." Felicity exclaimed as she also gave up after trying a second roll and dropped her still full plate in the garbage. "I should have at least gone with our normal place when I wanted sushi, I should never bring new stuff down here because you guys need to eat and we don't have other choices if..."

"It's no big deal, Felicity." Dig said with a grin, although he did double check the name on the bag to make sure he didn't walk into the place by accident one day. Although unless it got better fast he doubted the place would last the month. "We can always get something later if..."

He was interrupted by a chirp from the monitors, and Felicity sprang over to her chair and started typing. "Street cams outside the house just picked him up, he's heading to the front door now. If he keeps with his pattern of the past few days he'll spend a few hours there before going out again."

"Then let's go get him." Dig said as he quickly added a few things to his vest.

Oliver nodded as he grabbed his bow, frowning a little at the clock on her monitor. It was almost ten minutes earlier than Chao had shown up on any other Tuesday. Although Felicity had also been fifteen minutes later than any other Tuesday, because of something as simple as a car accident that had probably been a narrow miss every other day, and for some reason or another had happened today. And every change that happened, no matter how small, could change other things, and this would give him a headache if he kept thinking about it.

"Oliver, you okay?"

Felicity's hand resting lightly on his forearm brought him out of his thoughts, and he flashed her a smile. "Sure, just thinking. See if you can find us entrance points on ground level, I know we normally send one of us in from a roof access, but I'm starting to worry that makes us too predictable." And telling her now would save her a few hours of being concerned about his choices and worrying over what she had missed, as she had for the past two nights.

"Good idea." Felicity started pulling up blueprints. "We really should start assuming that anyone who chooses to come to this city has done at least some homework on it."

"I really miss the days when that wasn't the case." Dig said with a sigh as he finished zipping up his tactical vest and grabbed his comm from the charging station.

"Me too, but that's why we do ours." Oliver grabbed his comm as well, placing a hand on Felicity's shoulder in thanks before him and Dig headed out.

It was time to take down the same bad guy they'd already captured the past three nights, because Oliver still didn't know what else to do.

TBC...


	4. Saturday

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Arrow or any of its characters. DC Comics, the WB, and others have that honor. No profit is being made, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

AN: One of the strangest things about writing this trope is you can't really advance relationships or storylines, and can only deal with character growth for a single person. That said, the reason I chose this fandom, pairing, and storyline for the challenge was that I thought it would be absolutely fascinating and awesome for a character like Oliver, and perfect for where their relationship was at here. Oh, and in case anyone missed it in the summary, this is an Olicity fic and that starts delevoping now. Hope everyone is enjoying!

This chapter is dedicated to mjf2468, who has been wonderful enough to review every chapter. It's always a little scary writing for a new fandom, no matter how long you've been writing, and comments and favs are what keep it being fun.

* * *

Tuesday

by Lady Callista

Chapter 4: Saturday

It should have been Saturday, but instead it was the fifth Tuesday Oliver Queen had been forced to experience.

To say that he was frustrated would have been an understatement.

As far as everyone else was concerned it was Tuesday, and he had just taken Thea's call and was waiting upstairs for the building inspector to show up. He had about four minutes before the man in the dark blue suit and contrasting pale orange tie would walk in the door.

He was sitting at the bar, googling _time loop_ on his phone _,_ and trying to find a way to filter out anything fiction. He wished he'd payed more attention to Felicity's instructions on how to search things.

He spent the whole hour Mr. Crawford was there inspecting the club on his phone, sitting at the bar, trying to figure out what to search for to even begin to try to fix this. He found nothing he hadn't already read in the past few days.

He had dealt with the building inspection for five days running now, because it was one of those things on the short list of things he had to do just in case the time line was normal again tomorrow. Then again, most of what he did/should do today was on that short list.

When Thea arrived with his favorite Thai for lunch, he took it to go, saying he had other plans. And he headed down to the basement to find a better way to research whatever the hell was going on.

He noticed at once that the lights were back on, and rather than trying to fake a smile to Felicity he gave her a nod of acknowledgement as he stuck the lunch he didn't want in the mini-fridge and moved towards the training area.

He had thought that by skipping lunch with Thea, where they normally chatted for almost an hour, he'd have a bit of alone time before Felicity showed up, but obviously she had been down here for longer than he thought.

"Everything okay?" Oliver asked as he stripped off his shirt, noticing Felicity's pause in typing as he moved towards the salmon ladder.

"Peachy." Felicity chirped, her eyes locked firmly on her monitor. "Ray's stuck in budget meetings all day, so I took a few extra hours for lunch so I could work on something here. I think I'm close to finding the ninja star guy. Are they? Are they ninja stars, I mean? Cause well, now that I've met real ninja, and you know, I never thought I'd be able to say that? But I've met ninja and they mostly use bows and swords, so does throwing stars work better than ninja stars as a descriptor? Or do the League even count as ninja, I mean they're sort of both not what you think of and what you do when... 3, 2, 1."

"They're shuriken, Felicity." Oliver said with a grin as he stretched out his shoulders. Moments like this, moments that were new because he had changed something, were brief rays of sanity. "And the League does use them, you just haven't seen it."

"I'm good with that." Fellicity glanced up as she responded, her fingers freezing on the keys as he jumped up to grab the bar. She took a deep breath, taking to long moment to just admire, because it was hardly a secret that she enjoyed watching him on the salmon ladder, and if he was going to tease her with that view she was certainly going to enjoy it. If only she could do more than look.

Felicity could have kissed her computer when it chose that moment to ping an alert, and she turned her attention back to her monitor, determined to ignore the sexy and infuriating half-naked man less than twenty feet away. She was only somewhat successful.

It got much easier after about a half hour, when the elite lab she used anonomously by faking various authorizations emailed her with an urgent notice. She had sent one of the ninja... no, _shuriken_ there, on a faked CIA order that had actually been a fun challenge to ply her digital magic on.

The very specific metallurgy report on the weapon had raised a red flag on a series of homicides in both Paris and Berlin. She had committed two felonies to get this info. She committed a third as she erased everything relating to the request and the results. She'd learned to not think about things like that.

"Shuriken guy's name, well, wanted poster name, is, well, actually Shuriken." Felicity called out, briefly flashing back to learning Cisco loved giving frankly hysterical names to the villlians in Central City. Although really, it wasn't any worse than the Ninja Star Killer moniker the Starling media had chosen. "He's wanted dead or alive by A.R.G.U.S. and has federal arrest warrants in over a dozen countries. Including this one."

"But no one has a real name?" Oliver asked as he crossed over to her, toweling off and grabbing his shirt off the table but not pulling it on just yet.

"Not, um..." Fellicity stuttered as she turned to talk to him and found herself six inches from his absolutley amazing abs. She spun back just as quickly and screamed internally as she placed her hands over the keyboard and prayed that muscle memory would take over. "Not yet. But we now have all the information of over a dozen intelligence agencies who don't like to play show and tell with each other. I've got another program that can filter everything, so I should have an answer in, well, it could be in five minutes or five hours, but today."

"Sounds good." It would be almost exactly thirty minutes, Oliver knew, as it had been 1:32 pm the past four days he had come down here after lunch with Thea, and he had heard her whoop of success as he came down the stairs.

He was tempted to tell her the legal name and location of Shuriken, as well as all the tricks he would play on them as they tried to capture him, but in the end was still concerned about exactly what the hell was going on. He pulled his shirt on and went to work on some arrows while his mind grappled with possibilities.

Yesterday, well, what he considered yesterday, he had made sure to check world news, and so far it had been consistent with today. Which was the same as the check he had done between the previous two days.

There were minor inconsistencies, but no huge accomplishment that would point to someone who was repeating a day until they got something right. Although even if that was the case, that wouldn't explain why Oliver was remembering it. And it could still be the case, and just be something that didn't make the news.

There were no major disasters or assassinations that might mean someone was trying to prevent something, although again someone doing that wouldn't explain why Oliver remembered.

And neither of those theories, nor any of the others he had come up with over the past excruciating days, even guessed at how it could actually be happening.

Oliver bit out a curse as his inattention left him with a bleeding cut across the back of his hand.

"Oliver." Felicity's chair clattered as it spun, and she was out of it and at his side before she even really registered that she was moving. She reached out with both hands to take his bleeding left one in hers and raised it at an angle to get better light.

Oliver just stood there with his hand in both her small, warm ones as he watched her face transform into her _calm in the face of blood_ expression. And he cursed again, softly, at the thought that she wore that expression enough that he recognized it. He had also forgotten just how fast she could move.

His thoughts were broken when she mumbled something under her breath. It sounded a little like Mandarin, but when Felicity swore under her breath it was usually in words that were only considered curses on some sci-fi show or other. He had learned long ago that _frak_ was exactly what it sounded like, and also learned to stop asking about the other ones unless he wanted a long explanation of the show it came from. But this was different. "What was that?"

Felicity's slight blush darkened as she glanced up to find his stormy blue eyes barely six inches away. She quickly dropped his hand and clipped over towards the medicine cabinet. "I just figured you were swearing in Chinese, I would too. It's not bad though, probably shouldn't even need stitches." She pulled out supplies with the quickness of too much practice.

Felicity took a deep breath, trying to remember while sorting through over a dozen prescription only level drugs that this was part of her normal life. She remembered fondly the little white box you could buy at the pharmacy for twenty bucks that used to live under her sink, and maybe get pulled out once every few months. Then she thought of the medical-grade metal monstrosity Dig had given her to keep at her place _just in case_. He'd brought it one night with a bag of bananas to teach her how to do stitches. "Some days I can't even believe this is my life."

"What?"

Felicity spun rapidly, supplies in hand, as she questioned, "Was that out loud?"

"Sort of." Oliver grinned as she crossed back over to him. He had grabbed a clean towel and was applying pressure to the back of his hand, inwardly cursing himself for the lapse. He knew not to work on weapons when he was distracted. And while they both knew it wasn't serious, he knew she would be annoyed if, since they had time, he didn't let her treat it. "You were mumbling, just like you were when you said, well, what apparently is Chinese, so I clearly didn't hear it very well."

Felicity breathed a sigh of relief, glad he was willing to let it go. Because she loved her life, she really did, but sometimes she just had thoughts like how she knew real ninja and how to draw blood and give stitches. She thought of how she could honestly say she had taken a bullet for someone, and jumped out of a fraking plane, and stabbed a villain in the neck with a drug. And it always threw her for a bit of a loop.

Then she remembered that he was asking about the Firefly phrase she had murmured earlier, and repeated what she had said as she started to set the alcohol, gauze, and butterfly bandages on the table next to him, along with a local she knew he would refuse but always tried to offer. "It basically means stupid inbred sack of meat. It wasn't meant to be a, uh, I just..."

Oliver blinked at the unexpected translation, shaking his head at the local and enduring her deep sigh, then wincing but remaining motionless as she started to clean out the cut. Some of the words were there, and he could understand how maybe it could mean something like that if pronounced properly, but it certainly wasn't a common phrase she would have heard somewhere.

"Where did you learn it?" Oliver asked, mostly to distract himself ftom the burn of the cut than anything else. He could deal with most pain with barely any expression or reaction, that didn't mean that he didn't feel it. Especially when there was nothing but her soft hands and sweet smell to distract him. And the fact that he had just had that thought clearly meant he needed the distraction, Oliver chided himself. "It might just be your pronounciation, it is a tonal language, but..."

"It's from Firefly." Felicity blushed even deeper than she had earlier. "It's a show set in the future, and the language of the whole world is this mix of English and Chinese, and..."

Oliver let her words drift over him as she explained the show, actually fairly briefly for her, and then admitted that the show wasn't exactly known for its correct use of the language. The whole time she was neatly and gently cleaning and bandaging the nearly inch long cut.

"Thank you." Oliver said softly when she was done, and smiled as this time she didn't drop his hand after looking up into his eyes. "And I would recommend not trying to learn to swear in Chinese from that show. I'll admit I never thought that would be something you would want to learn, but..."

"I don't, not really, but I used them before I knew you, they were just more sci-fi words where the boss wouldn't know I was swearing. And then I found out you actually knew Chinese, and it seemed dumb to use them around you, because I knew they weren't exactly right. I just forgot today." Felicity said softly, looking down at where she still held his hand in both of hers before leaning down and pressing her lips lightly over the treated cut, barely brushing his skin. "Best medicine, right?"

"Felicity..." Oliver's breath whooshed out as his other hand found her hip. Their eyes locked, and she had just started to drift closer to him when her computer let out an alert tone.

She dropped his hand with a sight squeal, backing a few steps away before quickly spinning to her computer. "I have a name and address on Shuriken, I'll start filtering camera feeds in the area from the past few days. It was rented through a shell corperation, it was searching for recent..."

"Felicity." Oliver dropped his hands ever so lightly on both her shoulders, forcing himself not to react as she relaxed slightly back into his hands. "About that..."

"About what?"

"Try this next time." He felt her tense and knew he had to keep it light, but couldn't resist bending down to whisper the Mandarin phrase in her ear, smiling when he felt her shiver slightly.

"And what does that mean?" Felicity managed after a moment, although her hands were frozen over the keys.

"More or less, it means _I will kick your ass_." Oliver said with a slight grin, which burst into a full smile when she asked him to repeat it.

They had repeated it back and forth a few times, and she almost had it, when the computer pinged again. "We will practice that." She grinned before turning back to her monitors.

Oliver took a deep breath and turned back to his arrows. And promised himself that they would.

* * *

"Can we talk for a minute, Oliver?" Felicity asked as he came out from changing at the end of the night, his leathers hanging over his arm.

He dropped them on the floor by the case, still remembering his amusement when Felicity had informed him over a year ago that fabric sprays were originally designed for things like kevlar, things that couldn't really be cleaned but that you didn't want to ruin your sense of smell. Or, you know, just have to breath next to. Everytime he opened the case the pine scent reminded him of her.

"Sure, what's up?" Oliver wondered as he crossed the platform, his fingers automatically finding her elbow as she rose. Both his eyebrows rose when she said, in perfect Mandarin, that she would kick his ass. "Perfect."

Felicity grinned at the praise, swallowing sharply as she tried to find either the courage to go through with what she had been thinking about for hours now, or the willpower to pull back. She took a deep breath as she caught his eyes, and the desire flowing through them made her whisper once again that she would kick his ass. And then she rested her hands on his chest for an instant, sliding them up around his neck, completely expecting him to use the warning she was giving him to gently move back, to remind her again why they couldn't do this.

Instead Felicity's heart almost exploded as he met her halfway and deepened the kiss until she damn near forgot her name.

Oliver lost himself in her, not just in her babbling conversation and amazing friendship as he always had, but in the warmth of her skin and the scent of her hair. In the softness of her lips under his. The nails of one of her hands trailed distractingly over the back of his neck, and he could feel the light whisper of her other hand trailing over his cheek. His hands were locked on her hips, thumbs trailing over the bare skin left by the side cutouts in her royal blue dress.

Oliver gasped as one of her hands slid down his back, squeezing his ass before pulling back from both the kiss and his arms. He instinctively reached for her elbows, and she swayed back into him, resting her palms on his chest even as her head cocked adorably as he whispered something in Mandarin.

"I said consider my ass kicked." Oliver whispered in her ear as he trailed kisses along her jawline.

Felicity used the last of her willpower to pull back. "Should I remember that phrase or forget it?" He had been a little flirty yet awkward earlier, and it had been so similiar to their one and only date that she had decided to take a chance. But she knew that it was his decision as much as hers, however much she disagreed with the one he had made a few weeks ago. Although he seemed to be wavering on that.

"If you mention it tomorrow I won't pretend it didn't happen." Oliver whispered as he stroked his hands over her waist and cheek before stepping back.

"Good night, Oliver."

He returned the sentiment with a soft brush of his lips on hers. "Sweet dreams, Felicity."

TBC...


	5. Sunday

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Arrow or any of its characters. DC Comics, the WB, and others have that honor. No profit is being made, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

AN: Sunday is going to come out in two parts, because it's already longer than any other chapter, and I won't have time to write for a couple of days, so this way you get a new chapter now. It's time to shake things up a bit!

* * *

Tuesday

by Lady Callista

Chapter 5: Sunday

 _"I won't pretend this didn't happen." Oliver whispered as he stroked his hands over her waist and cheek before stepping back._

 _"Good night, Oliver."_

 _He couldn't not kiss her again, but contented himself with a soft brush. "Sweet dreams, Felicity."_

 _Oliver turned towards the workbench so that he wasn't tempted to drop his gaze to her legs as she crossed the room, licking his lips to get another taste of her before the reality of the situation came crashing down around him._

 _That she might not remember hadn't been what he was thinking when he said the words, the kiss had wiped from his mind everything other than her. He had been trying to leave the ball in her court, because while he knew she had feelings for him, as he did for her, he also knew how much he had hurt her in the past, and that he couldn't promise anything for the future. He hadn't been thinking that she wouldn't remember, but now the thought battered at him relentlessly._

 _She wouldn't remember. He had promised he wouldn't pretend it didn't happen, and honestly meant it, but that didn't mean he had to bring it up. And if she didn't remember..._

 _He managed to hold in the string of curses until he heard the door close behind her._

 _The moment they had shared earlier in the day had been one thing, they had been closer than he normally allowed himself to be with her when they were alone, but it had been for a reason. And if time didn't keep looping, nothing between them would change._

 _But that kiss changed everything._

 _Well, everything and nothing, Oliver admitted to himself even as he stalked across the room, knowing he was going to destroy yet another practice dummy before he would be anywhere near able to sleep. At least the day restarting was saving him money he didn't really have to replace them._

 _He had just planted himself and drawn his arm back to strike when a thought flitted through his mind that caused him to freeze._

 _What if she did remember? What if this was the solution?_

 _His mind had gone completely and blissfullly blank when she kissed him, all the frustrations of the past days vanishing in her warmth and touch. He had forgotten, for he had no idea how long, the hell he had been going through. That always happened when they were too close for too long, and kissing her wasn't just like doubling her light and comfort and understanding, it was multiplying it, well, he didn't even know how many times._

 _The ramifications hit him like a ton of bricks._

 _Oliver promised himself that if tomorrow wasn't Tuesday, he would accept it as a sign and figure out how to be with someone he loved. His thoughts were a jumble on whether or not he wanted this to be the solution, and if it was what in the world could have caused it._

 _Oliver spent nearly two hours working out, and destroyed both a dummy and a bag, before he realized he needed a very cold shower before he had any chance of sleeping._

 _His thoughts were no clearer on whether or not he wanted this to be the answer, but he did know he wanted to kiss her again. Although that wasn't really anything new._

It was once again Tuesday when Oliver woke with the sun, this time with a mix of both frustration and relief. And a twinge of disappointment he didn't want to think about.

He didn't want to do this again. He didn't want to waste an hour with the building inspector. He didn't want to have his favorite Thai for lunch, after six days he didn't even want to smell Phat Thai for a month. He didn't want to read the same news, or think in more circles about what was going on. He didn't want to catch the same killer. He really didn't want to have horrible sushi again. He did still want to kiss Felicity again, but that was neither here nor there.

Oliver increased his regular ten mile run to fifteen, and by the time he was done he had a plan for the day.

He was just sliding the trays of sushi into the mini-fridge when Thea called, and he went up to deal with the inspector.

An hour later he was walking back down the stairs. He greeted Felicity as he slid the Thai into the fridge and pulled out the sushi. "Hungry?"

"Oh, I've been wanting sushi all day, but I'm close to finding this guy, and..." Felicity trailed off as she turned and saw him holding trays of sushi from their favorite restaurant. Well, not their, as in them as a couple had a favorite, but their as in her and Oliver and John thought it was the best sushi in the city. She stopped her rambling thoughts with a deep breath and rose with a smile. "Either you read my mind or we both woke up craving the same thing."

Felicity reached out to take the top carton from him as she finished speaking, and Oliver drew in a sharp breath he couldn't control as their hands brushed. He covered quickly, giving her a half smile and trying to joke, "If I could read minds my job would be a lot easier."

He had woken craving her above anything else. He had dreamed of her all night, woken up tasting her kiss, and even allowed himself a few minutes to lay wrapped in those dreams before reaching over to check his phone and cursing.

Oliver stopped himself from falling into her eyes as she smiled at him, turning to put the sushi on the table before turning back to take the second one from him. "Yeah, I can't picture you in a wheelchair or bald." Oliver blinked, allowing the unfamiliar reference to slide past him even as his eyes slid down her back as she turned away again, taking in the diamond shaped cutouts that accented her trim waist, remembering his fingers gliding over that soft skin as he kissed her. He loved her in blue.

And in green, a darker part of his mind reminded him, recalling a night over a year ago when she'd walked in with her hair down, in a shorter than normal and perfectly fitted dress that had basically no back. It was the exact color of his leathers, and had a subtle sheen that matched the glow on her face. She'd been dressed to go undercover in a club, but Oliver had forgotten all about the mission of the night when a surge of desire had gone through him. He had said softly that she looked amazing, to which she had blushed, and then he had gone off to punch a practice dummy so that he didn't pull her into his arms.

"Oliver?"

Felicity's voice was tinged with a mix of amusement and surprise, but it was the hint of uncertainly that made his eyes flash up to hers. _From her ass._ He felt his jaw muscles twitch as he realized that his gaze had continued sliding down her while he was lost in his thoughts of her. He cleared his throat, flicking his eyes to the side and taking a deep breath before meeting her curious eyes again, and saying softly, "That dress is... I really like that dress on you."

Felicity felt herself blush at the look in his eyes, wanting to flirt back but also hesitant. She had caught him staring at her ass, she knew she had, but it wasn't like she had never appreciated his in leather. Or his abs. Or shoulders, or arms, or just about every part of him. Well, every part that she had seen. Felicity snapped out of her thoughts when she felt his gentle hand on her elbow, and only said softly, "Thanks. It's my new favorite." Especially since he had just complimented it. "It's one of the cool perks of working out down here, I am in the best shape of my life cause there's a free gym with hot trainers..."

Oliver blinked as he always did when she had what she called a _mental filter malfunction_ , glancing away with a small smirk to give her a second to recover. By the time he looked back, her face was blank although a deep blush still stained her cheeks. "If we have time after we take this guy down tonight, I could help you with your bag work."

Felicity tilted her head, wondering what was going on. She wasn't surprised he had gracefully glossed over her comment, he always did when it was clear she was uncomfortable with something that had slipped out, but she was surprised with the offer to help her train. Sara, Felicity bottled all the mixed emotions that came with those memories, Sara had been the first one to really train her, and Dig had agreed to continue with her. Oliver had only worked with her once, and he had only come over because he was worried she would hurt herself with the way she was kicking the bag. She still remembered the feeling of his hands on her hips.

"Felicity?"

She came back to herself with a soft chirp. "Sure, I'd love the help." And if it actually happened, she'd ask him what had made him offer.

"Well," Oliver said softly, " _Itadakemasu_."

Felicity smiled at the traditional opening to a Japanese meal, and turned back to the table to dig in. She didn't know why Oliver seemed more relaxed today, but she was happy to enjoy it while it lasted.

* * *

It was barely ten o'clock when Oliver and Dig returned to the basement, from a mission that had gone much more smoothly than Felicity had worried it would after reading about Shuriken in the files she had hacked. Oliver had seemed almost supernaturally lucky tonight. Not that she didn't believe in his skills, and he was always amazing at finding options and adjusting plans, but not a single thing had gone wrong tonight. Not that Felicity didn't appreciate that, it just wasn't what normally happened.

Oliver was changing out of his suit, and Dig was off to the side reloading his clips, so Felicity confirmed that the police were on the scene, and then walked over to the bathroom, where she had already left the bag with her work out clothes. She was over by the bag wrapping her hands before Dig was done with reloading and cleaning his guns, and saw the apologetic look cross his face.

"Hey, I know we're usually not out til around midnight, but the little one has been cranky as hell this week, and I'll take two more hours at home."

Felicity tilted her head in confusion for a second before she realized he thought she was hoping he would help her. "Oh, no, I expected you to go." Suddenly shy about it for reasons she wasn't sure of, because she knew Dig approved of them together, she didn't add that Oliver had offered.

"I figured you shouldn't be the only one training her." Oliver's voice cut across the room as he finished putting his suit in the case. His eyes locked on Felicity, her hair in its standard ponytail but dressed in black leggings and a bright pink sports bra that matched her lipstick. He froze for a split second before he forced himself to continue crossing the room towards her.

He was dressed in loose green sweatpants and a tight grey tank and Felicity had to take a deep breath as he strode towards her. She stood there, frozen in the act of finishing wrapping her first hand, as he got closer, stopping when he was only a few feet away, their eyes still locked together.

It was only a slightly uncomfortable chuckle from John that brought her out of her trance, and she flushed at the amusement in his voice. "I'm just gonna leave you two alone now."

"Good night, Dig." Oliver glanced over at his friend with a smile, and something in his eyes caused Dig to chuckle again and shake his head slightly.

Felicity echoed the words, and Dig jogged up the stairs with a smirk on his lips.

"Make a fist." Oliver teased as he finished crossing over to her.

Felicity grinned at him and laughed. "Oliver, my mom taught me when I was like five years old not to tuck my thumb inside my fingers." She grinned wider however, amusing them both by making fists with both hands before she resumed wrapping them.

"I don't really know what you've learned so far, because I haven't been around."

Felicity glanced back up at him, taking the opening he was giving her. "Why haven't you ever wanted to train with me?" She asked the question softly, curious but not in any way upset.

"Two reasons." Oliver said as he glanced away before meeting her eyes again. "I don't want to train you because, Felicity, I don't want you to have to fight. Sara and I, even Dig although in a different way, we all went through hell learning what we did, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Especially not you."

"I'm not expecting to get mad ninja skills out of this, Oliver. I'll never be at your level there, but I can run circles around you and anyone else online, so that's okay." Felicity said softly, looking back down and continuing to work on her hands, sensing that he was uncomfortable for some reason. "I just want to be able to defend myself, or help someone, if I need to."

"And that's why I've been thinking for a while now about helping you." Oliver admitted honestly. He had the thought every time he woke from a dream of her injured or kidnapped. "And I can train you in strikes and kicks with the bag, or the dummies, but Felicity, I can't spar with you. I might be able to watch, to coach, but..."

Felicity kept her eyes on her work as he trailed off, giving him the moment he clearly needed, and had just finished wrapping her second hand when his voice came in a soft whisper, in a vulnerable tone she had only heard a few times. The first of those being when he had said he loved her before pressing a syringe into her palm.

"Felicity, I just can't see you as a target." Oliver breathed softly. "Don't ask me to."

It was exactly the same tone of voice he'd had when he told her there was no choice to make between saving her and having to kill again. She smiled softly, reaching out to take his hands, feeling a slight thrill when he enveloped her smaller hands in his warm ones. She knew he was uncomfortable, and knowing him as she did could even understand why he couldn't spar with her. She remembered him telling her she was the first one he really saw as a person, after he got back, and she squeezed his hands in understanding before grinning and looking down at their hands. "So, do I pass inspection?"

He smiled in thanks of her understanding before checking her work, nodding and motioning for her to start punching.

Oliver watched as she started slowly and lightly, warming up and getting into the beat. He knew Dig had been working with her a lot on this recently, and honestly wanted to see what she had learned. He considered getting out the pads to see how she adjusted to a moving target, he honestly wouldn't even need them for her but he knew she'd never hit him otherwise. She was adjusting well to the swinging of the bag as she started hitting harder, he noticed, trying to keep his thoughts focused so that he didn't think about how different it was to see her like this, and also how amazing.

She switched to various light kicks after a few minutes, and he saw once again the same problem he had seen the other week. "Hold up a sec."

Felicity turned to him as he called out, taking a few deep breaths as she shook out her arms. "It's my roundhouse again, isn't it?"

Oliver nodded as he moved closer. "It varies by the martial art, and John knows some of at least half a dozen, but if you can learn to flex your foot right, you're putting a lot more force behind it. I think it's the best form for you, and I know you probably won't be barefoot like now, but even through a shoe you can break or jam toes if you do it wrong." He raised one of his legs to where she could see his foot, and flexed the muscles to pull back all of his toes. He used his other hand to point to the pad of his foot, then did the kick in slow motion, freezing as he contacted the bag to show her how the strike landed.

Felicity nodded, raising her foot in the same way he had and trying to get all her toes to flex, not only just all together but far enough back that she wouldn't break one or more of them. When he nodded, she tried to move in slow motion as he had, but wobbled and had to drop her foot before she toppled over. She gave thanks to Goggle that she didn't fall on her ass in front of him.

Oliver chuckled slightly, moving behind her to put his hands lightly on her hips, keeping his eyes on her ponytail. "There're a few kata I can show you for balance, for now I'll help. Try it again."

Her voice was breathy yet determined as she softly said yes, and he helped her hold her balance as she tried again, moving slowly and clearly concentrating on her foot. She connected almost perfectly, gave a small huff and took the tiniest step back before setting her feet and trying again.

Oliver took a second to appreciate the irony. He couldn't count the number of girls he'd had his hands on like this, under the pretense of teaching them darts, or pool, or whatever. This was different for two reasons. It wasn't a pretense; as much as he enjoyed having her in his arms, it really was important for her to learn. And, well, it was Felicity. That really did make all the difference in the world.

"Perfect, speed it up." He said a few minutes later, when she did three slow motion ones in a row that connected exactly right.

Felicity grinned with accomplishment, blaming the heat flowing through her on the workout, not his hands on her hips.

By the time she was at half speed she was steady enough that he could drop his hands, and he took a half step to the side so he could watch her form. She kept repeating the move perfectly, and he grinned at her squeal of delight when she connected perfectly at full speed and made the bag swing back a very respectable amount.

"Good one."

The praise was soft but sincere, and Felicity spun to him, beaming. Then, determined, she spun back to the bag, trying to keep the same pivot point, and kicked again. She actually did the pivot right, at least she thought she did, but she completely forgot that the bag would still be swinging.

Oliver winced as she didn't connect when she planned to, knowing she didn't have enough experience to shift back rather than continue the forward momentum. He moved foward to catch her even as he was grateful the bag had been swinging away from her rather than with towards, which could have hurt her foot.

"I know, I know." Felicity murmured as he caught her around the waist. This was one of the reasons she hadn't pushed him into training her, she didn't want to suck in front of him. She felt his breath hitch as her hands landed on his chest, and she couldn't help but catch his eyes as their bodies collided.

He had been flirting with her all day. Well, not flirting exactly, Felicity corrected herself as she slid her arms slowly up around his neck. This wasn't the fake flirting he turned on when he was being the Ollie people expected to see, the look in his eyes was real and all for her.

Oliver already had one arm around her, his other hand on her hip, and when her arms slid around his neck he couldn't do anything other than lean down and kiss her.

It was a brush at first, a question Felicity knew, but she couldn't bring herself to think about anything but his scent and warmth as she rose to her toes, returning the light touch with a second, melting into him as the brush of lips quickly deepened to more.

Oliver caressed up her back as his other hand stayed on her hip, shuddering slightly as her fingers began to play over the back of his neck. Her mouth opened under his as she slid a hand down his chest to caress over his abs.

Oliver lost track of time, of his surroundings, of anything but her. When her hand slid around to his back, going under his shirt and tugging, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to help her pull it off before diving back into the kiss.

It wasn't until her hand slid testingly down over his ass, an echo of her touch from last night, a night she didn't remember, that reality intruded on Oliver like a thousand cold showers.

"I'm sorry." Oliver whispered, pulling back from their kiss but leaving their foreheads pressed together.

"For what?" Felicity responded softly.

"For... I want this so much but I can't, I, this isn't what I planned when..."

"Can't what?" Felicity asked it softly, her hands still sliding over his naked back, never varying her touch whether it was soft skin or textured scars her fingers skimmed across.

If he hadn't already loved her for a thousand reasons, that alone might have done it.

Then she tensed in his arms. "What do you mean planned?"

Oliver allowed the light shove of her hands to push him away, instantly missing the warmth and feel of her in his arms. "Give me a second to explain."

She ranted right over his words. "Cause if this was supposed to be a date it would be nice to have been asked, and if you're now about to repeat the words you said in the days after our last one..."

"No, Felicity, that's not... I..." Oliver forced himself to take a few steps back, grabbing his shirt off the floor and pulling it back on to give himself a few seconds to collect his thoughts. "Remember how you joked earlier that I had read your mind about the sushi?"

Felicity nodded but didn't speak.

Oliver took a deep breath, remembered his plan, and took the plunge. "I've been living my own personal Groundhog Day for six days now, and the other days your craving for sushi led you to bring it in for dinner. Only it was from the new place across from QC, and sorry, but it's really bad. I needed a way for you to believe me, so I brought in lunch. And then I wanted to talk to you about it tonight, but I wasn't lying about thinking about helping you train, and I was trying to figure out how to bring it up, and..."

Her eyes froze over in an instant. "So, wait..."

"Felicity..."

She cut him off with a sharp voice. "You know I won't remember this day, that it's like a freebie for you, so you decided to have your cake and eat it too? And I hate that phrase because it makes no sense, because of course if you have cake you're going to eat it, but still..."

In retrospect, Oliver realized he should have anticipated this reaction given what had just happened.

He might have if he had even considered she would believe him so instantly.

TBC...


	6. Sunday, part 2

Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Arrow or any of its characters. DC Comics, the WB, and others have that honor. No profit is being made, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

AN: I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with this, but I've been playing with it for days now and can't think of any other changes to make. Oliver is probably way more open than he should be, but we'll attribute that to the stress of what's going on and the reasons he gives, and I'm actually okay with Felicity being so accepting, she gives her reasons and I stand by them, lol. Remember this is very early S3, not long after their miss-fire date. And yes, the original script for Groundhog Day did indeed have the explanation I mention, and I'm glad they didn't use it. Reviews are appreciated as always.

* * *

Tuesday

by Lady Callista

Chapter 6: Sunday pt2

Her eyes froze over in an instant. "So, wait..."

Oliver allowed the light shove of her hands to push him away, instantly missing the warmth and feel of her in his arms. "Felicity..."

She cut him off with a sharp voice. "You know I won't remember this day, that it's like a freebie for you, so you decided to have your cake and eat it too? And I hate that phrase because it makes no sense, because of course if you have cake you're going to eat it, but still..."

In retrospect, Oliver realized he should have anticipated this reaction given what had just happened. He might have if he had even considered she would believe him so instantly, which actually made him chuckle when she continued.

"And I can't even believe I'm considering this. It's crazy, it's sci-fi. But there's no way you could have known about the sushi, and it really did seem like you were reading minds during the job tonight, but if you were reading minds you wouldn't make up something like this, and foreknowledge of the event could account for that, so..."

He lowered his head as she was off and running, but only to take a deep breath before saying her name softly. Something in his eyes as he raised them to catch hers stopped her rapid speech, and he softly slid his hands up her arms to cup her shoulders, saying gently, "After a few days of this, I felt like if I wasn't already crazy this was going to drive me there. And then I decided that instead of leaving you down here working your lunch break away, which is what you had done the other... the, well... We were going to go to lunch for that sushi you had woken up craving."

"You just didn't want to have bad sushi for dinner." Felicity interjected a slightly teasing note into her voice, but held his eyes, letting him know she understood the seriousness of what he was telling her. Letting him know how much it meant to her that he was trusting her with this, as insane as it seemed.

The fact that she knew him so well, could sense his discomfort and tease him while dealing with something that should have been impossible, made one of his hands slide up to hesitantly cup her cheek as he gave her a small smile. "That was a bonus. But so was that hour, I forgot about everything that was going on, and just enjoyed being with you."

"Oliver." Her arms slipped back around his waist as she breathed his name, both hope and hesitation in her voice.

"And it's been a few more days, and I just... I don't know how to stop this, I don't know what to look for or do or..." He huffed in frustration as his hands fell away from her and he stepped back slightly. "I brought in the sushi because I needed something to help you believe me, but I also just wanted to take another hour and forget. And tonight, I... I wasn't trying to have my cake and eat it too, and yes it is a dumb expression. I really did just need to spend a little time with you, to try to figure out how to tell you."

"And you decided blurting it out after kissing me senseless was the best way?" Felicity asked archly, her hands falling from his waist only to be caught up in both of his as he clasped them gently.

"I didn't decide to kiss you, I didn't plan it." Oliver said softly, eyes locked with hers. "I just forgot not to, and then for a few minutes I was kissing you and nothing else mattered. But then I remembered that, that you wouldn't remember, and I felt like a jerk. I still hadn't figured out how to tell you but knew I had to, so it all kind of just came out."

Felicity rose on her toes to brush her lips across his, an echo of his first kiss earlier. "I might have to plead the fifth if you asked what I'd do if our situations were reversed."

"How can you be so blase about this?" He asked in honest wonder even as he chuckled slightly at her confession.

"Because on various levels my life has been insane since I met you, and I've just had to learn to go with it." Felicity said as she slid her fingers under his shirt again, but only to let her hands rest warmly on his waist. "While I'll admit this is a _not_ insignificant step up, that's still all it is. I know you're not lying, and I mean I've had to recalculate the odds on so many things after the whole back seat fiasco."

Felicity froze as she realized what she had just said. There were various ways it could be taken, and Oliver certainly knew which actual and completely platonic event she was referencing. He had always shown patience with her disfunctional brain to mouth filter, yet she couldn't have found a worse way to word that if she had tried. When he was silent for a long moment, she started to babble again. "It happens in tons of books and shows I like, Oliver. And, I mean, you know what's going on in Central City these days. And there're a few weird rumors out of Gotham, I had discounted them, but..."

"I really am sorry." Oliver interrupted her softly. "I thought about telling you and Dig the second day, but I wasn't even sure I believed it. And then it happened again, and again, and I tried to figure out what to do. I started changing some things, just because I needed something different to happen, and it wasn't my intent, but, uh, we kissed last night. And I was lost in it, lost until you left and I realized you wouldn't remember. So I planned out today to make it the most likely that you'd believe me. Because kissing you is amazing Felicity, but it's not fair if you don't remember."

Her hands slid down to his hips at the consideration and respect that statement showed, and she understood exactly what he meant about forgetting anything but the other person. "For the next few minutes, I don't care if you don't."

"Felicity..." He whispered her name as he trailed a hand down her ponytail. "You won't remember this, and it makes me feel like I'm..."

"You're not using me, Oliver." Her voice was as soft as his own, and she leaned into his chest in a hug, burrowing in when his hands slid down her back to pull her closer. "In some ways it's easier for me; not remembering can be easier with things like this. I can't imagine how frustrating this is, but if, if being with me helps, then don't feel bad about that. And never apologize for kissing me."

"You are so amazing." Oliver knew his voice was a mix of awe and disbelief, but couldn't control it. "If I had ever imagined you would take it like this..."

"Well, if you told me in the morning and we had time, I'm sure I'd have a ton more questions and start working on how to fix it, and all. But I'm assuming we only have til midnight, so, um, when I was little I had a stuffed dog named Noah." Felicity's voice softened on the second half of the sentence. "My dad had won it for me at the state fair, it was the last thing I'd done with him before he left us. That dog went to MIT with me, and to this day he's on the top shelf of my closet."

"You never talk about your family." Oliver murmured softly as she pulled back from his chest but took his hands again, understanding she was offering him a short cut to help her believe him tomorrow, something she had never told him.

"I know." Felicity acknowledged, taking a deep breath as she remembered the only time she ever had. "And that's why you knowing about this will make it even easier for me to believe you're telling the truth. Not that I ever doubted it."

"You really didn't." Oliver said, hints of amazement still evident in his tone. "How is that?"

"Because it's you." Felicity offered simply. "Not only are you really bad at lying to me, Oliver, but this isn't the kind of thing you would make up. I mean, it's a trope, not what you answer with when someone asks how your day is going. But I've seen enough impossible things that I'm just going to assume you're telling the truth. Would you honestly not believe me if I told you it was happening to me?"

"I'd believe you, although I don't know if I'd handle it nearly as well." Oliver admitted at once, he'd thought about it earlier in the day.

"I've watched and read a lot more time loop stories than you." Felicity pointed out. "You're either telling the truth or lying, or, as you said, crazy. Of those three options, I'll pick the first one. Unless I'm the one who is crazy. Or dreaming, in which case it doesn't matter. And if I was dreaming I really don't think this is how the night would be going."

It wasn't a slip, she grinned at him when she said it, and Oliver could do nothing but grin back before turning serious again. "It doesn't end at midnight, but I don't know when it does. I tried to stay awake one of the first nights, usually easy for me, and suddenly I was waking up and it was Tuesday again, and my last memories were of being on the salmon ladder. I don't remember stopping, I don't remember going to sleep..."

"Well, we should test that first. I'll stay tonight and help keep you up. I mean, I mean help you stay awake. Um, I mean..." Felicity winced even as she closed her eyes, feeling herself blushing sightly.

"I know what you mean, and thank you." Oliver said softly after a brief but only slightly uncomfortable silence.

"I have to admit though, if I'm not gonna remember it, I really don't want to train." Felicity admitted. "I mean, yay for not being sore tomorrow, but there's kinda no point."

"There's no point to doing anything, that's one of the things that has been driving me crazy." Oliver replied, dropping her hands finally to punch in frustration at the bag still hanging beside them. "Even if I do tell someone and they believe me, they'll forget again the next day. I can't work on arrowheads, or sharpening weapons, or, well, anything, because any work I do is gone the next day."

"But you can't _not_ go to the meeting for your sister, or catch Shuriken, just in case tomorrow isn't Tuesday." Felicity said understandingly as he continued to drive his fists into the punching bag. "Have you tried checking the news, seeing if there's something big..."

"Yes." Oliver's voice was clipped. "As much as I can, I mean, I have to go with what I can remember, cause I can't write anything down, but none of the major world events change from day to day, and none of them involve anyone I know, anyone that could somehow be connected to me. But I can't memorize everything that happens here, let alone in the world."

"Yeah, that does make it really hard." Felicity admitted, wanting to wander over to her desk and write a program to sort and filter events, but knowing it was pointless. "The night you tried to stay awake, do you remember what time it was the last time you checked?"

"I think it was almost two." Oliver replied, landing a few heavy kicks on the bag before turning to face her again. "And before you ask, I always wake up at sunrise, which is normal for me. Except for the fact that for six days now I've woken up and it's been Tuesday."

"At least you're not forced to wake up to _I Got You Babe_." Felicity tried to joke. "Wait, you aren't, are you? Because I know in the movie they never say what caused it, but..."

"What?"

"You said it was your own personal Groundhog Day, which made me, with surprise I might add, assume you'd actually seen the movie." Felicity managed a grin.

"I have, just a really long time ago." Oliver admitted. "But like I said I hadn't figured out how to tell you, and that seemed the easiest explanation. I've looked it up, and other movies or shows with time loops, but either the solution is unique to the setting, or they never actually figure out what caused it."

"Well, in one of the early scripts for Groundhog Day it was actually caused by his ex-girlfriend and a voodoo curse." Felicity replied. "But, well, it didn't really make sense, so they just left it unexplained."

"A voodoo curse?" Oliver asked, managing a grin, although he did actually give a moment's thought about if any of his exes were both that skilled and crazy. "Where do you learn this stuff?"

"I actually went through a phase in high school when my friends and I had serious discussions about that movie." Felicity said almost shyly as she crossed her ankles, bending her knees at the same time to settle cross-legged on the training mat. "We might have found the original scripts somewhere or other, and yeah, voodoo curse. Which wasn't nearly as interesting as some of our ideas. My one friend is convinced, to this day, that it's a lesson in reincarnation. You move through the phases of innocence, acting out, understanding, betterment of self, and so on. Another friend decided it was a lesson in irony, where the lesson he was supposed to learn was basicallly to be nice to everyone, to not act like you're the center of the universe. But, end of the day, the universe literally did stop, well keep resetting, for thousands of days just to teach him a lesson, so..."

"So I'm the center of the universe?" Oliver sank down to the mat beside her, grinning as she closed her eyes, knowing she was mentally counting down to what she called her brain reset.

"The center of this spell, anyway, and I use spell as a general term for whatever is causing this, but it doesn't have to be something like a curse. Although given what I've seen over the past years, I'm not ruling out witches. Although hopefully more the Halliwell variety than the Sanderson. Or, like, you know, Willow, but not Darth Willow, because..."

" _Felicity."_

The Oliver Queen patented pronounciation of her name, four streatched out sounds, pulled Felicity out of her babble. She blushed, as she always did when he said her name that way. It was partly because he only did it when she rambled on; it was also because she'd had dreams of him saying her name that way in much less innocent situations.

Oliver let his hand rest lightly on her knee as her eyes closed for a few seconds, her blush deepening, before she looked at him again. "I just can't believe you've thought about this so much."

"Well, it's not just that movie, I mean between Star Trek and Doctor Who it's hard not to discuss it." Felicity let out an overly dramatic moan at his blank face. "Okay, you have no excuse here, both those shows are older than you are. There're tons of shows and books out there about time travel and time loops, Oliver. I'm not saying I ever really thought it was possible, but it was fun to talk about. Because yes, I am a geek."

Oliver moved instinctively at the hint of self-deprication in her voice at the end. The hand that had been on her knee slid to her waist as he shifted closer to her. "Don't say that like it's a bad thing."

"I don't really, not anymore, but..."

"It's an amazing thing." Oliver said softly as his free hand slid up to cup her cheek even as he kissed her lightly on the other one. "I may not understand what you're saying half the time, but that doesn't mean I'm not constantly in awe of you."

"Oliver." Felicity whispered as she tilted her head, leaning in to kiss him softly. "If I remember this tomorrow, what happens?"

Oliver tensed, drawing back abruptly. "I'm..."

"Don't you dare say you're sorry." Felicity cut him off. "It's just, you've been so different tonight. I know you appreciate my talents, but you've never said it this way. And you're always so careful when you touch me, and it's so seldom, which is okay because it means every touch has meaning, but..."

Oliver silenced her with another soft kiss that grew rapidly as she shifted closer to him, arms wrapping around his waist.

"I always want to touch you, Felicity." Oliver whispered when they finally had to pull apart, both gasping for breath. "I always want to kiss you. Be near you. But I know I've hurt you, and I don't want to do it again. More than anything I don't want to hurt you again, and I know how much it can hurt to have hope and lose it time after time."

"Will you ever tell me this when I'll remember?"

Oliver tensed, taking a deep breath. "Would it help? Because in the end I still don't think I can be with someone I... someone I love. Would it help to know it hurts me as much as it does you?"

"It's not that, but..." Felicity whispered, her thoughts whirling before something occured to her. "I don't want you to hurt any more than you want me to, but honestly, Oliver, I'm not sure what to say here. I won't have to remember this tomorrow, you will. I don't want to say something I normally wouldn't, well, beyond what I already have. It's not fair to you."

"I don't know if I'll ever have this conversation with you again or not, but you're right that it's not fair to either of us to have it now." Oliver responded after a second of silence. "I never intended any of this, it's just..."

"Oh, I get it." Felicity admitted with a ruthful smirk. "Remember when I said I'd have to take the fifth if I was the one this was happening to? No consequences or concerns about tomorrow would tempt anyone."

"You really are taking this way too well."

"I'm sure I'll take it differently if you tell me in the morning." Felicity replied. "But there really isn't much we can do about it tonight, and honestly for all I know I might be dreaming, so I can babble on about ideas and tv shows if you want, but..."

Oliver chuckled in appreciation as she trailed off, then grew serious again. "All I want is for this day to stop happening."

"Tell me tomorrow at lunch, or get me here earlier if you want, and we'll start figuring things out." Felicity replied sympathetically. "Dig too, who knows what all he's seen or heard over the years. You're both so quiet about parts of your pasts."

"No one else needs my nightmares."

He said it so softly, sounding both vulnerable yet resigned, that for a long moment Felicity didn't know what to say. She understood on one level what he meant, because she knew just from the scars on his body that he had been through more pain and suffering than anyone should ever have to face. Even not knowing the circumstances, she knew that five years of his life were nightmare inducing, and nightmares that were memories or twisted versions of them were always the worst ones.

But they were also the ones you needed to talk about, to try to work through, Felicity knew, or they would haunt you forever. And she knew what the odds were of him talking to anyone normally. "I can't have nightmares if I don't remember." The words were out of her mouth before she'd really thought about saying them, but she had no wish to recall them.

"That's another thing that wouldn't be fair to you." Oliver murmured, stunned as he realized what she was offering. He had told Dig more than anyone else about those five years of hell, partially because Dig was too observant and he needed to explain certain thoughts, actions, or connections. But also because if any of his friends could understand, it would be John Diggle. "I know I haven't told you much, but I've told you more than anyone except Dig."

"You're worried I'll think differently of you." Felicity said softly, knowing him well enough to not even make it a question. "Oliver, as I once told John, I'm not that blonde. Your lower back was burned, I don't even want to imagine how much that hurt. It's hard for me to tell bullet scars from arrow ones, but I'm pretty sure there are some of each. And a few from knives. I know you've killed people, and I assume you've inter..."

"Call it what it is." Oliver cut in, unable to look her in the eyes, stiffening when she reached out to take his hands before finally looking up to meet her eyes. He was surprised by the fire buring in them.

"Fine, I assume you've tortured people, and that you were forced somehow to do it. I'm also guessing it was done to you. Oliver, I can't think less of you for anything you did to survive." Felicity spoke clearly but softly, bringing one of his hands up to her lips and softly kissing knuckles that were still red from how savagely he had been striking the punching bag. "No one who hasn't been in that kind of situation should judge what someone else did to survive. And knowing what I do about Amanda and A.R.G.U.S. I'm guessing she was threatening more than just your life. Your mom and Thea, probably."

"Is there anything you haven't thought this in depth about?" Oliver asked, honestly not knowing how to respond to that, but raising one of her hands to his lips to mirror her gesture.

"When it comes to you, probably not." Felicity admitted, looking away briefly before forcing herself to meet his gaze. He was amazing at gracefully glossing over and never mentioning anything she said when her mouth ran away from her brain, surely he could put anything she said tonight in the same little locked box.

"I promise when this is all over, I'll work on training with you, and explain why I can't spar with you." Oliver said softly, linking their fingers together, his thumbs trailing over her sensitive inner wrists. "I'll think about talking about the other stuff, but I can't promise. Same with what happened over those five years. And I know it's unfair, but if you were offering what I think you were by saying you couldn't have nightmares if you didn't remember..."

Felicity's eyes widened as he dropped her hands before reaching down and pulling off his tank one handed with practiced ease. This time it was her body rather than her mouth that disconnected, and before she realized it she was running her fingers over the scars littering his upper torso, unable to help herself from skimming lightly up and down his amazing abs. Just as her mind was starting to short circuit, he reached for her hands again, trapping them against a mostly unscarred area. His skin felt burning hot under her hands, and she could see the heat in his eyes as well.

"Pick any scar." Oliver whispered. "Pick any scar and I'll tell you how I got it. We'll do that until either I wake up and it's Tuesday again, or until it's not."

"And on the rare chance it's not?" Felicity murmured the question, unable to resist letting her fingers trail over his chest again as he released her hands. She might not remember this tomorrow, but she was going to enjoy ever minute of it while it lasted. Especially since it seemed to comfort and pleasure him as well.

"I promised you last night that I wouldn't pretend that kiss didn't happen, even though for the few minutes it was happening I forgot about everything else. I forgot you, well, I forgot you wouldn't remember, and I still meant it." Oliver husked, relaxing into her gentle exploratory touches. "And when I realized, it was the jolt I needed to risk you thinking I was crazy and telling you today. About that kiss, and everything else. I'll give you that same promise now."

Felicity smiled, small but real, her fingers sliding down to his waist as she leaned in slowly to kiss the puckered scar high on his right pectoral. "Was this a knife?"

"Stone arrowhead, what would be normally called a broadhead, or a hunting arrow." Oliver sketched out the triangular shape on the palm of her hand. "Once it goes through, it's easier to push it all the way through than to try to remove it from the back, that would cause more damage." He went on for a moment, explaining how field or target tips did leave scars more similiar to bullets, but that broadheads or other types of arrows could leave ones that looked more like a knife, or that seemed unidentifiable. "And it's actually fitting that you picked that one, it's the first one I got."

"Will you tell me?" Felicity asked softly, hesitant despite his offer to tell her his stories. She had been amazed when he actually offered to talk to her, but given his reasons for not doing so previously could understand why he would be willing to now. She didn't take offense to that, as she had told him earlier she didn't feel like he was using her. He had been dealt one of the worst hands ever, and if she showed him now that she could handle it, maybe he would tell her again when she could remember.

"I didn't just randomly decide to use a green hood to hide who I was." Oliver said softly, shifting to rest his back against one of the steel pillars, cautiously opening his arms to her and sighing deeply when she twisted to lean against him, dropping another kiss over the same scar before resting her head over it, arm wrapping around his waist as her fingers absently skimmed over his abs. "His name was Yao Fei..."

TBC...


End file.
